mcconnell. they've had a successful partnership in the past, and harry reid, the majority leader, seems to go along with that. so maybe the outlines of a deal can be between those two principals. then again, we have john boehner, speaker of the house, has to control his own republican party. what happens if mcconnell and biden create a minimal deal and boehner can't sell it, then we're back to square one, which is failure. >> right. which boehner couldn't do with his plan b a couple of days ago. >> that's right. >> the question is, if some deal should be reached, i'm not expecting something that's overreaching, something large, is it short-term? >> very short-term. and then i'm sorry to be the dispenser of bad news, we have the whole fiscal cliff again with the fiscal reputation in terms of the borrowing maximum, the ceiling, which will come due in about a month where they have to raise the debt ceiling. you remember the president said, i'm not going to play that game anymore. unfortunately, he'